German Chancellor Angela Merkel continues her reign as the most powerful woman on the planet for 10 years running. Why? She clinched a third four-year term of Europe's most vibrant economy in December 2014, making her the longest-serving elected EU head of state. She fought off a national recession during the global economic crisis with stimulus packages and government subsidies for companies that cut hours for workers, and she is in the thick of trying to help Greece revive its economy. She has used her power against ISIS, breaking the post-Nazi-era taboo of direct involvement in military actions by sending arms to Kurdish fighters. In the Russia-Ukraine crisis, she has been engaging in shuttle diplomacy trying to broker a peace deal with Vladimir Putin. There's only one woman who has a chance of endangering her tenure as No. 1 in 2016 -- the world's No. 2 most powerful woman. More »

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Following the country’s ability to secure emergency funding last week the Greek banks have reopened this morning. They’re still subject to stringent capital controls but the interesting thing is going to be watching to see whether the bank run is over or not. It cannot be a run of money out of the banks, given the withdrawal restrictions: at read »

The compromise agreement between the European institutions and Greece, reached after marathon talks over the weekend, may have avoided the worst possible outcome but it remains a rather bad deal and is far from the end of the story as the focus shifts to the reaction by the people of Greece.

After negotiating with euro zone leaders through the night, Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras was forced to agree Monday morning to what amounts to an act of contrition: As a precondition to open talks on a fresh round of aid for the nearly bankrupt country, the Greek Parliament will first have to pass a long list of economic reforms to read »

Greece faces yet another week of key decisions over its economic future as the almost bankrupt country needs to swallow some more harsh commitments to obtain financial salvation from the Eurozone it joined 15 years ago on the basis of doctored statistics.

Hard-line member states, headed by Germany, want the Greek parliament, government read »

It’s very difficult indeed to design plans for Greece that are actually worse than that one the European Union is trying to impose upon that benighted country. Decades of enforced poverty in order to maintain a currency (and possibly even a political order) that the country should never have embraced, should never have been allowed into, just read »

After the referendum vote on Sunday, and given the squeeze that the European Central Bank has placed upon the Greek banks, Alexis Tsipras, the Prime Minister of Greece, is to present a new plan to the troika of the ECB, International Monetary Fund and Eurogroup later today. Well, it’s being called a new plan at least but it does seem to be read »

Greek Finance Minisiter Yanis Varoufakis said he would step down if the “Yes” camp won the Greek referendum on Sunday. The “No” camp won with a 61 per cent score, Varoufakis said he wanted to quickly engage in new talks with the European Union and on Monday he suddenly resigned.

The Greeks have spoken. With a sizeable majority, they have rejected the offer made by their European creditors on June 25th.

Ok, so the offer had expired. But there is little doubt that, had the Greeks voted Yes, it would have formed the basis for a new Memorandum of Understanding – and there would have been no negotiation. They would read »

That’s no, to most of us: no to further austerity, no to a previous deal offered by the EU, IMF and other creditors, and no, effectively, to staying in the euro. The rhetoric from Greece – such as Greece’s labour minister Panos Skourletis saying: “The government can go now with a very strong card to read »

Greece’s Prime Minister, Alexis Tsipras, last night offered to meet most of the demands to the troika (or the institutions, to taste) in an attempt to keep the bailout deal going. However, no one seems very interested: for what he calls just some terribly minor variations in what was on offer appear to others to be rather major changes to what read »

The Eurozone institutions’ reaction to the bank closure and capital controls imposed in Greece after the ECB froze ELA funding to the banks was one of horror. “Oh my god what have we done?” about sums it up. And they have been scrabbling about ever since to find a face-saving way of undoing the damage.

British men’s brand Tom Cridland is determined to design and manufacture a sweatshirt that comes with a 30-Year guarantee.

“It’s no gimmick,” says Cridland who’s keen on slowing down the fashion industry. So, if you buy the sweatshirt at 24 years of age (as Cridland is), you can take it back to Cridland for a stitch up till your read »

Everyone seems to be celebrating the fact that the Greek debt crisis has been dealt with. But it’s not entirely obvious that this is actually so. For what actually seems to be on offer is that Greece gets the money it needs to avoid default and in return it agrees to, well, it agrees to keep talking about the internal reforms it should make. read »

An interesting little tactic by Yanis Varoufakis, Greece’s finance minister, floated today in the German press, tells us something about what Greece’s negotiating plan over the debt problem seems to be. Essentially, let’s ignore all the economics here and make a play for the politics of it all. The play here is pretty naked too: Varoufakis is read »